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Archer Review: A Metric Tonne of Trouble

Archer: Vice continued this week with the gang trying to deal with Pam's cocaine addiction, Cheryl's stage fright and a visit from our new favorite FBI agent, Special Agent Hawley.

Despite learning more about porn than I EVER wanted to know in life, I really enjoyed Archer Season 5 Episode 4 and think it was a significant improvement from last week's venture.

I apologize for the length of this review, but this week's episode was so dense! There were obscure references, great one-liners, fun running jokes (pounds Sterling - brilliant), interesting character development, and last but not least, a whole lot of Krieger!

The gang finally formally addressed Pam's addiction, partly out of concern for her (well, only Lana was concerned), and partly out of the realization that she's literally eating away their profits. Although, Kreiger and Cyril don't seem to have a big problem with it, since Pam got all big-busted and coke-skinny now.

Unfortunately for them, Pam is also all coke-strong and escaped the "intervention," grabbing Cheryl as a hostage. If that wasn't bad enough, they needed to find her while dealing with an FBI agent in the house.

I think what elevated this week's episode from "good" to "great" were the character interactions and developments. Ron's contempt for the ISIS crew was quite funny and I'm not surprised at all that he walked out on Malory.

We also found out that poor Ray has been wallowing in depression needlessly; all Krieger's had to do is reboot the chip in his spine. On that note - I can't recall if we've ever seen Cyril and Krieger work together before, but they are absolutely hilarious!

My favorit interaction, though, (as if you had to ask) would be between Lana and Archer.

I said last week that I think Archer is maturing (well, as much as Archer can mature), and my guess was that this was because of his love for Lana and his concern for her child's wellbeing.

Here we saw even more of that. His concern for Lana led him to read up and memorize every pregnancy complication there is. He knew what she was thinking and how she would act when he opened the door. Even more telling was the fact that he was willing to let Lana escape and never see her again just so that she and her child would be safe.

What I didn't see coming - or not this quickly, anyway - was Lana's reciprocation of Archer's feelings. For a split second, before Archer got all annoying again, she actually admitted that she couldn't leave him. I'm looking forward to seeing how this is going to be dealt with throughout the season.

On another note, it's not often we get to see Archer give Lana the evil eye - I was laughing so hard when she was baby-talking to him!

The tunnels and hidden passageways make for fun times in the Tunt mansion, and Archer's pop culture knowledge (has NO ONE watched Scooby-Doo?) allowed them to hide the cocaine behind a revolving wall before Agent Hawley got to it.

Hawley brought up an interesting point: their international contacts through ISIS would make it easier to get into the drug trade. I'm hoping this is the gateway to getting out of the Tunt mansion. As fun as the hidden passages have been, we've had two episodes in the mansion now, and I'm itching to see these guys back out in the field.

RUNNING JOKES:
- The whole metric/imperial gag was hilarious. Even more so to me because I'm Canadian. Trust me, folks, metric's better.
- Mispronunciations: Malory said "grand old opera" instead of opry, and Archer said "Braxton-Hicks contraptions" instead of contractions.
- "Said Ripley to the android Bishop"....gotta agree with Krieger; that's crap. Bring back "phrasing!"
- So. very. many. different kinds of porn...

SHOUT-OUTS:
- Obscure reference alert: Thomas Corwin Mendelhall was an advocate for US adoption of the metric system.
- Sweat it out like "Popeye" Doyle - The French Connection
- Scooby-Doo (God speed, you meddling kids.)

Not to mention Krieger's mind control chip has turned Cheryl into Cherlene! Gotta see this new country singer on the road!

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Archer+Fan•February 12, 2014 07:54

I’m a Archer fan that has loved the “Danger Zone” for four seasons. However, season 5, started great until episode 2, 3 and now 4…not that funny…a little boring. Episode 2 and 3 so weak I almost didn’t finish them. Episode 4, the banter was back….but off. Just wasn’t that funny.

A lot of Krieger in this episode. Loved it. Insanely funny moment: "Remind me to reboot the CPU in Ray's spine So he can walk again". That's all it takes!? Awesome. Part of me was starting to think what the point of adding Lucky's name to the credits if they were going to utilize Krieger even less than usual. Glad they finally gave him something to do. Him and Cheryl are my favorite characters (it's becoming pretty apparent that Cheryl's "ghosts" that her family used to dress up as are klansmen by the way). Archer calling KY "Kentucky jelly" got a laugh out of me as well. Unfortunately Archer and Community are going on a little bit of a hiatus while the winter Olympics (which I didn't even know was still a thing) are happening. I'm sure I can find something to keep me occupied in the meantime. Walking Dead comes back and I may think about giving Brooklyn Nine-Nine another shot.

First of all, I've been meaning to say this forever - I love your user name! You've got great taste in comedy :-) There were a lot of great moments in this week's episode, but I really loved how much Krieger there was. As for the ghosts being KKK - that never even occurred to me! Interesting. I thought Archer himself was on point this episode, and I was laughing out loud at the KY thing as well. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine (I review that one as well). It gets better and better every week, and this week's episode had me in stitches.

J•February 04, 2014 04:48

The whole Pam-cocaine thing has gotta die. It was barely chuckle-worthy by the second episode, now it's just awful. This whole season has been a train wreck so far, and I'm completely down with the overhaul of the show. It's turning into Family Guy: find a joke that works and then smash it over our heads until what made it originally funny just painful to listen to.

Lana: Cheryl?Cheryl: Nah, Cheryl's gone. I'm Cherlene now. And if somebody don't fry me 6 goddamn eggs and some Carolina fries I would personally be shocked, SHOCKED I tell ya, if by morning this place ain't burned to the ground.